So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!       James 3:5

I don’t know anyone who respects a bragger. Whether a politician or a family member, the audience rolls their eyes. The boaster really believes that telling his stories will impress people. It does the opposite.

My roots go back to a small New England town. In that town of 1200, there lived a man named Louie. He was a family acquaintance; in fact, we grew up thinking he was family because my aunt and uncle took him in when he was thirty and he never left.  He was present at every family event.  Louie amassed a small fortune at others’ expense, and money and power were his gods. He won a local election that made him the town’s supervisor, and his ego grew to epic proportions. I grew up hearing him boast of his political victories.

Not surprisingly, Louie assessed a person’s worth by how much they loved him! If he was fawned over, he returned it with a buttery kind of speech that would make most people blush. Cross him, however, and you become an enemy. He was a narcissist. Ethically, he was bankrupt, and morally, he was dangerous.

In the end, he was ill, weak, and vulnerable. Those who surrounded him were scavengers, out to benefit from his will and estate. He could trust none of them. Those who clamored for his riches massaged his ego. What he had spent a lifetime building was ultimately left to two con artists, who spent all that he had left them in three years. Today, these two women are poor and worse off than before taking part in their get-rich schemes.

The man of integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. It’s a Proverb worth remembering. Those who walk the crooked path will be exposed. Hidden sin has a way of surfacing, and dishonesty ultimately unravels. Integrity may not always look glamorous, but it is the only path that leads to lasting peace and honor.

Remove the anxiety of hidden things, and replace it with the deep security of a clean heart. Give me the peace that comes when I have nothing to hide. Amen